After falling into the water, Rust's hands and feet kicked around, his head barely emerged from the water, and his wet hands tremblingly rested on the edge of the pool.
Then he discovered to his horror that the demons on the shore had no intention of letting him go so easily——
The sunlight accentuated the unbridled laughter on their faces. These young smiles should have been full of vigor and vitality, but now they only contained malice.
They picked up inflatable buoyancy rods, pointed them at Rust's head above the water, and beat him hard!
Bang bang bang!
The inflatable stick left a trail of afterimages.
Rust was hit several times in an instant, and the severe pain made him hurriedly put his head into the water.
This backyard pool party filled with joy and laughter suddenly turned into an extremely cruel scene.
The baseball players on the shore waved their hands, and the beautiful muscle lines on their bodies rose and fell. The water in the swimming pool was boiling like boiling water, and the water was splashed by falling inflatable sticks. Huge ripples and whirlpools appeared on the water.
Rust was struggling in it, clawing at the water surface with both hands, and his short hair was floating and wriggling like algae.
He was like a drowned little beast.
"Why did they do this? Who is this unfortunate guy?"
A handsome man asked curiously,
"You don't know? Eleventh grade Rust, a nerd, an Asian follower, a disgusting guy, vulgar and annoying."
"Last time, they used canned herrings to sneak attack Karen Takei, and Takei still smells like shit."
"He still has the nerve to come to Bob's birthday party?!"
"But teasing him like this is too much!"
"Keep it down, you want Bob to hear? This is Rust's fault. He deserves it."
Most of the young people at the pool started laughing along with the crowd.
But there were also a few little ones who pursed their lips tightly and watched this scene silently, as if they were seeing their former selves.
"stop!"
Bob gave the order and the baseball players stopped immediately.
He took another long-handled fishing net, accurately caught the exhausted Rust's head, and dragged him to the shore in a very humiliating way.
"Last, I accept your apology."
Bob patted Rusty's wet pale cheek and grinned with satisfaction.
The process of constant struggle in suffocation exhausted Lars's strength. He spat weakly, his chest heaved, his mind was as empty as paste, and his heart was filled with fear.
They were just going to kill me!
Almost, almost died!
"But it's not enough, you have to do one more thing, and our past grudges will be wiped out."
Bob gave Wasser a look, and the latter immediately helped Rust onto the recliner.
"Last, I believe you have deeply realized the mistakes you have made. You should understand how disgusting the nature of that chingchong is." Bob stepped on the armrest of the lounge chair and looked down at him,
"In half an hour, I will call all the partygoers, from school and outside, and then I will tell them in front of them the shameless behavior Dean has done...such as peeping on girls changing clothes in private and reporting prostitution to the teacher. Grassy Mexican.”
"You need to let everyone know how despicable he is and how he has no bottom line."
"You want him to go away in despair and forever."
Bob took a glass of beer and stuffed it into Rust's palm.
"Be prepared. If your speech is good enough, the baseball field will be open to you in the future."
"I never treat anyone wrong."
Rust was in a daze while holding a beer, staring at the sunset outside the pond, lost in thought.
…
click
On the second floor of the villa, a wooden door closed.
"There are no wild mandarin ducks." Dean breathed a sigh of relief. Just now he had continuously checked the 9 rooms on the second floor, and 2 of them were occupied by couples who were engaged in intense poker games.
The room we were in now was narrow and dark.
When you enter the door, you can see five working TVs.
The screen showed scenes of the iron gate, the front and back yards, and the interior corridors of the villa. In one of the scenes, Rust was walking through a crowded crowd.
There were several video recording devices covered with red buttons on the table next to them, making the whole space seem a bit crowded.
"There is no one in the control room."
The monitor's swivel chair in front of the screen was empty.
Dean realized it as soon as he thought about it.
In order to make the party more enjoyable, Bob's parents and relatives were not invited, let alone his bodyguards. The surveillance and security guards must have been dismissed by him as well.
After a search, Dean dug out a pile of black video tapes marked with dates from a drawer next to the screen, but the earliest one was only a week ago, which was too far away from the time Mona disappeared.
Dean searched carefully again, confirmed that there were no other clues, opened the door and left.
However, in order to avoid exposing his whereabouts, he took away today's surveillance tape before leaving.
…
Dean seemed to have used up all his good luck. As soon as he entered the corridor, a tall and thin man with rosy cheeks and smell of alcohol walked towards him.
For a moment, big eyes stared at small eyes.
"Hiccup...Brother, the mask is nice and very personal! Want one?"
The man didn't notice anything unusual about him at all, and just regarded him as a party guest. He laughed strangely, took out a camel from the cigarette case and handed it to him.
Dean calmly took the cigarette and held it in his mouth through the mask. What he had just witnessed flashed through his mind. He hesitated and raised his hips to perform a series of difficult "pile driver" movements. Then he stretched out his hand and pointed at the three-way stairs to the building.
"Haha, I understand, go quickly, don't keep your little baby waiting."
The tall and thin man winked at him and left.
Dean slipped up the stairs to the third floor.
Tom——
A quiet, elegant, small and exquisite study room with solid wood floors and four walls painted light yellow. There is only a simple table, chair and bookshelf in the entire study room.
As usual, Dean began to rummage through the boxes and went to the bookshelf to browse through them. There were all kinds of books: business books, classic literary works such as "Faust" and "Homer", as well as "Ten Days of Fitness" and "Basic Boxing Training". ” and other sports-themed books.
But the most popular are true detective and crime documentary novels such as "Sherlock Holmes", "Murder on the Orient Express", "The Black Dahlia" and "Secrets of Los Angeles".
Most of the books are in very new condition and have never been opened.
However, these crime documentary novels all have obvious traces of reading. In some places, detailed notes were even made to record Bob Lowe's reading experience.
But unlike what Dean imagined, these thoughts were more about analyzing the psychology of the real detectives and police officers who carried out the arrest.
"Bob Lowe is a fan of crime novels. But he obviously did not put himself on the side of the righteous detective, but on the side of the criminal."
"After reading, you became obsessed and became mentally ill? Commit a crime yourself?"
Dean flipped through the notes, his face became more serious, and his palms sweated nervously. The mind-numbing criminal methods in the book cast a shadow on his mind.
The sense of foreboding grew stronger.
Bob has read a lot of crime novels, and it goes without saying that he is very thoughtful. Since he dared to invite so many classmates to the villa for a party, he must have dealt with all traces long ago.
…
Dean sped up his search and finally found something different in the bathroom on the third floor.
A bathroom as big as a master bedroom.
Shower, toilet, mirror, and a perfect big bathtub are all available.
But the strange thing is that there is a huge blue plastic bucket next to the bathtub, which looks like an outdoor trash can and feels cheap.
This is extremely inconsistent with the luxurious decoration of the entire villa.
Moreover, the entire bathroom was filled with an indescribable, extremely light, strange smell that seemed to be about to disappear at any time... which was a bit pungent to the nose.
"What's the use of this thing?"
Dean rubbed the edge of the plastic bucket, lost in thought, and left after a while.
…
The center of the third floor.
Dean found a locked room. Unlike other rooms where the windows were wide open, allowing sunlight to shine through, this room was very private and spacious.
Through the glass on the wooden door, he could only see darkness.
Dean decisively took off his coat and wrapped it around his right fist, smashed the glass with one punch, then reached into the gap and turned the handle.
Shake off the shards of glass and put your clothes back on.
Dean groped around on the wall and finally turned on the switch, and the lights came on.
There are no windows in this room.
There is a large TV placed against the wall on the left hand side, and a video recorder is installed in the TV cabinet.
There is a single sofa for watching movies in the center, and hundreds of movie tapes are placed on the shelf on the right side.
The other two walls are covered with movie posters.
Dean suddenly realized that this was Bob Lowe's private screening room.
Dean first checked the video tape carefully——
"The Incredible Melting Man", "Return of the Living Corpse", "Black Sunday"...
Most of the names sound scary and scary.
Bob Loshan had no particular interest in recording criminal proceedings, and there were no suspicious tapes.
Dean spent a long time searching in front of the tape.
The time quietly came to eight o'clock in the evening, and there was still no clue.
And it is impossible for me to turn every room and every corner upside down in a short period of time.
He had already planned to terminate the operation and explore again another day.
But when he turned to leave and looked back, he suddenly noticed a special poster on the wall behind him——
Luke Skywalker, wearing white shin guards and a suit that looks like a judo training uniform, is holding a lightsaber and looks majestic.
In the lower right corner of the poster, a line of eye-catching text is written in black carbon pen - Mark Hamill, May the force be with you
System shakes.
The progress jumped to eighty-five percent.
Dean's mouth opened wide and he was stunned.
The surrounding air rippled.
The light refracted phantoms.
He seemed to be back at Raymond House, where the fat shopkeeper was telling him,
"Somewhere she found out that I had an autographed Luke Skywalker poster, 'Mark Hamill, May the force be with you.' The only one in Las Vegas."
…
"For about half a month, she came to the store every day and begged me to sell her the poster, saying she wanted to give it to her boyfriend as a birthday gift."
…
"I gave it to her for free...I couldn't refuse such a delightful girl."
…
"She confided in me that when you graduate from college, if you don't dislike her, she will propose to you."
…
Signed poster, one of a kind in Las Vegas.
Taken away by Mona, now showing up in Bob's private screening room.
Dean felt as if a string broke in his heart.
Reason and emotion become confused.
He gasped, closed his eyes and gently touched the cold-looking poster with his forehead.
But he was not cold at all, and his heart was extremely warm.
Mingming closed his eyes tightly.
But the darkness in front of him began to bloom, and the hazy light gradually outlined a clear light and shadow - a girl with a cowboy hat, long hair shawl, and a smile on her face.
Mona.
Her head rested gently on his shoulder,
"Dean, I've been waiting for you. We made an appointment. I know you'll come back."
She is still so gentle and sunny,
"You love watching Star Wars, so I prepared this birthday gift for you. Do you like it?"
She tilted her head, her big loving eyes full of expectation,
"I love it, Mona."
Dean said with a poster on his lips.
At this moment, two shadows completely overlapped on Dean.
He couldn't tell whether he was Ludian from the Celestial Empire, or an Asian boy who was bullied, struggled to find solace, and then suddenly lost her.
He suddenly opened his eyes, and the beautiful illusion shattered like a mirror and disappeared in his arms.
"Bob Lowe."
The angry eyes were bloodshot.
…
